Author: suburbangentuk

One half of the crime-fighting and blogging partnership at Two Men About Town. By day, I am a mid-twenties career man, running a team of online marketers and have a background of working with brands, retailers and digital agencies. When I'm not at work, I'm enjoying the sights and sounds of both London and Milton Keynes, checking out new bars and restaurants, music gigs or planning my next travel adventure and sharing my reviews and updates on the blog. I have a keen interest in design, quality local food, coffee, fashion, technology, music, travel and beautiful products.

We love a drink here at TwoMenAboutTown – well, drinks – but even more so when they’re absolutely free! And even better, this post contains a code so you can get your first drink on us and the good people at Drinki!

I’m a big fan of quirky and unique experiences. It won’t come as a surprise that I’m a big fan of food, particularly afternoon tea. I also love London and exploring it. So you’d naturally assume that a combination of these things through the medium of a traditional London Routemaster bus would be a real winner, right?

We don’t do half measures here at TwoMenAboutTown, especially when we are out and about exploring London, the more ostentatious and luxurious, the better; we love a good vantage point too, evidenced mostly by the fact that you can find me most weeks enjoying a beverage or two in one of London’s rooftop bars. Well my friends, what gets more ostentatious and luxurious than a sightseeing helicopter flight over central London?

RobsRibs, my blogging-partner-in-crime, jokes that I am a die-hard playboy wannabe, so I may as well live up to that reputation, right?

We’ve been fortunate enough to review some rather special London restaurants of late, most notably the OXO Tower Brasserie and the dining-in-the-dark experience at Dans Le Noir; you would perhaps expect then that our collective appetite for London’s fine dining scene would be reaching it’s limits, but you’d be wrong. Very wrong.

We got wind that Searcys at The Gherkin were opening a Coastline pop-up in their bar and restaurant located in the dome at the top of 30 St Mary Axe (that’s the Gherkin to you and me), with both food and menus inspired by the British seaside and coastal locations. Naturally, we got ourselves there for opening night in a jiffy.

I’ve wanted to dine at the OXO Tower for as long as I can remember, an iconic foodie-destination and major landmark of London’s South Bank; I was naturally chuffed when the opportunity to visit the OXO Brasserie presented itself and I got myself up there. With bells on.

In case you haven’t worked it out, we are rapidly approaching summer, y’know that hot yellow thing in the sky that makes us rush out to our BBQs, green open spaces and the alcohol aisles in the nearest supermarket. For us Londoners, this means, where beer gardens are at a bit of a premium, it’s time to head to the roof and get drinking!

Rooftop bars are very much on-trend right now no matter what the weather and fortunately London is blessed with many of them; who doesn’t love a gorgeous view over a tasty beverage or two? Now, I’ve been a top sport and have drank my way around researched London’s top rooftop hotspots to share my favourites with you, you good people. It was tough, but somebody had to do it.

I’ve been on a bit of a roll with hotel reviews of late; my latest London stay, snazzy-boutique CitizenM Tower Bridge is perhaps the most exciting out of all of them. With it’s supposed free-flowing interiors, cool and contemporary style, lively art, efficiency, kitsch style and ultra-practicality, it sounded like it was right up my street – y’know, as the modern suburban man that I am…

Regular readers of TMAT, or even followers of RobsRibsMK or I on Twitter, will know that between us, we love our music.

I am a huge advocate of the Sonos Play:1, so much so that I convinced Rob to take the plunge; he now has enough Sonos speakers in his house to effectively host a Guns N Roses reunion tour (you may have seen his early review of the Sonos). Why am I sharing this? Because we love audio products here at Two Men About Town, particularly those that really gets away superior sound and strong beats to maximise great music*.

On the hunt for something portable and shower-proof, following a failed attempt with two cheap no-name bluetooth speakers that didn’t quite cut the mustard, I decided to take the plunge and ordered up the UE Boom 2. But how would it work out?

Only a couple of posts back we reviewed The Grand Hotel in Brighton, a highly acclaimed property of times gone by with a luxurious and romantic reputation spanning decades – over a century, in fact; sadly, what we found didn’t quite hit the mark.

It was with much anticipation therefore that I booked a night at The Grosvenor Hotel in central London, another much romanticised Victorian-era property, oozing French Renaissance flair. Would The Grosvenor live up to it’s reputation, or would it fall disappointingly short?

The Grand is a highly luxurious property that I was hugely excited about staying in, up against personal 5* experiences at the Fairmont Dubai, Kempinski Budapest, Ritz-Carlton in Singapore, not to mention most-excellent stays at The Beach at Bude boutique hotel and the Excellence Playa Mujeres resort in Mexico. However, The Grand is perhaps the most iconic and well known amongst it’s more modern aforementioned contemporaries, romanticised as a hallmark for service and Victorian-era suave sophistication and charm.

I was keen to see whether The Grand would live up to it’s reputation, looking to enjoy the sights and sounds of Brighton from a plush and comfortable stay along the seafront.

From waffles and crépes, to chocolate fudge cake, crème brûlée, icecreams and milkshakes, there’s something really comforting about a good dessert.

The thing is, with the exception of a few places we’ve reviewed on TwoMenAboutTown, a large chunk of the restaurant trade of both chain and independent variety source sweets ready-made from suppliers, charging a silly amount for the fuss of sticking a refrigerated pre-made brownie on a plate with a scoop of icecream. Desserts are an art form that kitchens struggle to cope with or find time for, instead opting to focus on their appetisers and main menus, often far too big for their own good.

My blogger-in-crime RobsRibs has said many times that Milton Keynes is in dire need of a good pudding restaurant – even proclaiming to one day open one himself – something to take on the pre-made and homogenised dessert menu world, or at least that seen in Milton Keynes. With this in mind then, would Kaspa’s hold a torch to the big man’s vision and fill a sweet-void, or would it fall by the wayside? Independently, both Rob and I headed down within the last week under the radar to check out what Kaspa’s Desserts is all about.